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U.S. REP. LEE HAMILTON DONATING OFFICIAL PAPERS TO IU
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Myles Brand announced today (April 29) that U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton, upon his retirement from Congress in January, will donate his papers, memoranda, correspondence and speeches to IU.
The documents will join those of more than 50 other Indiana political figures whose papers are housed at IU's Lilly Library and which provide an extensive resource for scholars of American politics and government.
"I am astounded to think of how much history has occurred during my 34 years of service in the United States Congress," Hamilton said. "My papers, of course, illuminate only a small part of that history, but my hope is that they will be of some help to future students and scholars. Indiana University, with its highly professional library staff, is uniquely qualified to maintain and make accessible these records, and I am pleased by its interest and willingness to do so."
Brand said the Hamilton papers will be a valuable asset to scholars of many disciplines. He added, "Lee Hamilton has honorably served Indiana and the nation since 1965, and IU is delighted that the congressman has chosen his alma mater as a trustee of his papers and distinguished career. IU and Rep. Hamilton have a mutual interest in maintaining, preserving, studying and displaying this collection."
Hamilton is currently the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on International Relations. He is also former chairman of several committees, including the Joint Economic Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
"The papers are extremely valuable to us," said Suzanne Thorin, the Ruth Lilly University Dean of University Libraries. "Representative Hamilton's length of service and his incredibly high stature within the Congress make his papers particularly important to scholars. The collection provides a glimpse of what the Congress accomplished for the last 30 years, and the scope of his activities within that body is really quite remarkable."
Lisa Browar, director of the Lilly Library -- the IU library for rare books and manuscripts where Hamilton's papers will reside -- said, "It is extremely appropriate that at the end of his distinguished career in public service, Lee Hamilton has chosen to make his papers available for research. We are proud that he has selected the Lilly Library for this purpose, and we shall do everything possible to justify the confidence Mr. Hamilton has placed in us."
Hamilton's papers will join those of several other noteworthy Hoosiers, including William Henry Harrison, who was governor of the Indiana Territory in the early 1800s and later U.S. president; Charles Warren Fairbanks, U.S. senator from Indiana and vice president under Theodore Roosevelt; Birch Evan Bayh, who served Indiana as a U.S. senator from 1962 to 1980; and Wendell Willkie, Republican nominee for president in 1940.
Housing more than 400,000 books, 7 million manuscripts, and 150,000 pieces of sheet music, the Lilly Library is Indiana University's principal special collections repository.
(DeAnna J. Hines, executive director of communications, 812-855-0850, djhines@indiana.edu)